For Dolce & Gabbana it was not a matter of if or when to open in Australia, but where.

After five years of scouting around the process of creative destruction has finally delivered up a suitable spot. The first Dolce & Gabbana Australia boutique opens on Tuesday on the ground floor of the Mayfair Building in Melbourne’s Collins Street. The historic building has just received a $280 million facelift and now houses the headquarters of BHP Billiton.

Clad in volcanic stone shipped over from Sicily and bejewelled with two hefty chandeliers made of Murano glass, Dolce & Gabbana’s new shop is no temporary pop-up. Its arrival is a reminder that while Australians debate whether the mining boom is over, offshore fashion brands don’t really care.

No one from the company was authorised to talk on the record about the company’s Australian expansion plans due to a company policy that only the designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are authorised to represent the brand. Both men are fending off jail terms after an Italian court found in June they failed to declare €1 billion ($1.43 billion) in income.

But that controversy hasn’t reduced the Italians’ standing with the Victorian government. Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business
Louise Asher
on Monday welcomed the store’s opening and said the Victorian government had “worked closely" with the global fashion icon to bring it to Melbourne and had helped source potential locations. Inside shoppers will find classic Dolce & Gabbana pieces with men’s suits ranging from the boxier David cut through to the underfed Gold fit with skinny legs and skinnier lapels. Jackets are canvassed rather than fused.

Womenswear includes plenty of trademark lace and the odd piece that looks like Sicilian wedding mother-of-the-bride.

Clothing keeps to the northern hemisphere seasons but given luxury fashion labels are these days more likely to find their customers in an air-conditioned shopping centres in Dubai, seasons themselves are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

The store’s opening is further proof that Collins Street has vanquished Crown Casino as the city’s luxury shopping strip. But a new competitor lurks in the form of CFS Retail’s Emporium development on Lonsdale Street with talk that Gucci, currently on Collins Street, is looking to sign up opposite David Jones. Spokespeople for CFS Retail and Gucci declined to comment.